Emperador subsidiary to expand Scotland distillery

MANILA  -Billionaire Andrew Tan’s Emperador Inc. is ramping up whisky production at the Scotland distillery of subsidiary Whyte and Mackay in line with plans to grow its international business.

Whyte and Mackay, the world’s fifth largest maker of Scotch Whisky, is doubling the physical footprint of its whisky maturation complex at Invergordon Distillery to 92 hectares.

The company is building new warehouses “over the coming decades” that will allow it to store an additional 1.5 million casks of maturing hard liquor, according to Emperador.

“This expansion is part of Emperador’s continuing efforts to strengthen our production in response to growing demands for single malt whisky in various markets worldwide. We want to address the scarcity of aged liquids globally, and this will allow us to strengthen and support a core segment of our business,” Emperador president Winston Co said on Wednesday.

Whyte and Mackay owns four brands: Tamnavulin, Jura, Fettercairn and Dalmore.

“Scotch Whisky is a business that requires very long-term planning and the acquisition of this site reflects the scale of our ambition, not just for the next few years but for many decades to come,” said Whyte and Mackay CEO Bryan Donaghey.

This forms part of Emperador’s full-year expansion budget of P7 billion. Co earlier said 85 percent of the amount will go to the whisky business.

Emperador is gearing for growth as it targets increasing demand in markets such as the United States, China and India.

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